Thanksgiving Sensory Activities

There are so many fun sensory experiences that come around Thanksgiving, with lots of things to see, smell and touch. These Thanksgiving themed sensory activities are fun to do at home or with small groups of kids.

Of course the dominant smell/taste of Thanksgiving you probably think of is pumpkin, and I found recipes for pumpkin fluff from Teaching Mama, pumpkin play dough from Wildy Wonders, and pumpkin slime from My Joy Filled Life.

You can use that scented play dough to do pumpkin pie fraction math, with printables from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Or make a turkey with your dough and other things you might have lying around like feathers, eyes and little bits of foam or other found objects. Learn how in this post from Mama Papa Bubba.

Get more pumpkin-specific sensory experiences and ideas here: pumpkin sensory activities. (This post was more for Halloween but pumpkin endures through the seasons, doesn’t it?

If you’re not a pumpkin fan you can try apple pie playdough instead, which uses apple pie spice instead of pumpkin spice. This recipe is from The Best Ideas for Kids, but you can use your favorite playdough recipe and add food coloring and spices of whatever sort you like to make a fall playdough.

Another great scent and sensory experience of the season comes form cranberries. You can make a cranberry-scented playdough with this recipe from Learn Play Imagine, or do some cranberry STEM and sensory activities with these ideas from Little Bins for Little Hands.

There are lots of different possibilities for making sensory bins with seasonally appropriate fillers like corn (I Can Teach My Child) or Indian corn (Still Playing School), brown paper (Mrs. Plemon’s Kindergarten) or even fall-colored pasta (Not Quite Super Mom).

Some fun things to add to your fall or Thanksgiving sensory bins include measuring cups, fake pumpkins, acorns, real or fake leaves, little cups, etc.

Are you looking for the best sensory toys and activities for your child? Explore our comprehensive resources to enhance your child’s sensory play and development. Check out our curated Amazon Idea List featuring top-rated sensory toys and items, and don’t miss our expertly written articles on sensory activities. Start creating fun and educational sensory experiences today!

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Easy Sensory Activities for Valentine's Day

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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